Del Rey Yacht Club Cat Harbor Layover Recap
Among the unique regattas in Southern California is Del Rey YC’s Cat Harbor Layover. The race attracted 53 boats on June 7–8. (53 boats are also racing in the 53rd Transpac, starting July 1.)
The Saturday race from Santa Monica Bay to Cat Harbor is a rare opportunity to sail down the backside of Catalina during daylight, with a dramatic finish at Cat Head. This year did not disappoint!
Light winds and flat seas with a favorable wind angle made for a quick crossing to the West End of Catalina. By then the sun had come out for some of the best sailing conditions found anywhere.
First across the finish line was Phil Friedman’s majestic Farr 85, Sapphire Knight. But it was Robert Dekker’s well-traveled J/105 Cuchuliann that corrected out first overall among the Performance division boats. In the Cruiser division, Scott Haisman’s Dehler 38 Soul Shine corrected out in first.
Rounding Cat Head can be tricky. Racers cannot see the wind conditions until they round Cat Head. The wind shifts, builds, and changes velocity. Some of the more experienced racers have their spinnakers ready to drop as soon as the wind shifts, while others get lucky and avoid the shift long enough to carry their spinnakers to the finish. When the sun is out, racers are greeted with green water and stunning cliffs on either side of the Cat Harbor entrance.
Saturday evening’s party ashore at DRYC’s Cat Harbor facility was packed with over 250 racers grilling their meats and sharing their culinary creations with other racers.
Following breakfast ashore, the Sunday race back to Marina del Rey starts off Eagle Rock. This is a dramatic place to start a race and a challenging line to set, but our guest RC boat skipper Steven Kantor knows just where a shelf exists to set an anchor off his Carver 54 La Vie En Rose.
As they passed the West End, everyone set their spinnakers for the reach through the San Pedro Channel, making for a lovely flotilla of colorful chutes across the horizon. Winds got light for awhile but built back up for quick sailing into Santa Monica Bay and exciting finishes as racers dropped their spinnakers before rounding the offset mark and hardening up to the finish line set off Ballona Creek. All boats finished by 1820, except for one racer with steering issues who had to be towed in.
This time it was Daniel Murphy’s J/125 Javelin with line honors and Herwig Baumgartner’s ID35 Black Marlin correcting first overall in Performance divisions, with Scott Haisman’s Dehler 38 Soul Shine earning first overall in Cruiser division for the weekend sweep.
Del Rey YC has been holding layover races to Catalina since the 1960s, and to the backside of Catalina since the 1970s. It remains a popular event as racers are transported ashore by volunteers and received warmly at our Cat Harbor facility, which includes grills, picnic tables, a kitchen, and restrooms. We love sharing it with our racers for a taste of something different at Catalina.
The Cat Harbor layover races concluded both of DRYC’s seven-race Berger Series (for performance boats) and Stein Series (for cruisers). Two of the races were run in partnership with King Harbor YC and scored off each other’s results for different series. 98 boats total participated in at least one of the Berger or Stein series races for a total of 303 race registrations.
Congratulations to Berger Series winners: Bart McEntire’s Santa Cruz 37 Encore in Division 1, and Curt Johnson’s J/80 Avet in Division 2. Scott Haisman’s Dehler 38 Soul Shine won overall in the Stein Series for cruisers.
Looking ahead, DRYC will be sending racers back to Cat Harbor on Sept. 13 as we bring back the old “Ladies Got Guts” to Catalina race where women will be required to steer the entire race. On Sept. 20, DRYC is partnering with Channel Islands YC for our annual CI2MDR race, a 45-mile downwind course along some of California’s most scenic beaches. Race info at DRYC.org/racing.